■ 康河新书| 荣斌个人英文诗集《原谅》在英国出版

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新书首发

《原谅：荣斌精选诗歌集》

【作者】荣斌 

【译者&校审】陆文艳&刘晓晨&Peter Hughes 

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01 

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诗集介绍

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《原谅：荣斌精选诗歌集》（Forgiveness: Selected Poems By Rong Bin）收录了荣斌先锋写作时期的代表著作，以及1988至2013年创业期间坚持创作的诗歌，凝聚了他坐过山车般“大起大落”的人生经历和“大悲大喜”的心路历程，融入了他在时代大潮里的激情与感悟。诗歌，既是他至暗时期唯一能够倾诉的“树洞”，也是他内心复杂而难以言喻的情感唯一的寄托之所。这是诗人对于时代的记录，也是他对于自己艰苦奋斗历程的回顾，展现了诗人不屈服于命运的抗争精神和不对残酷社会低头的倔强性情，也饱含着对祖国的热爱和对故土、家人的温柔情怀。

该诗集中所囊括的近年回归以来的代表作及获奖作品《卸下伪装》、《自省书》，和以诗人本名命名的作品《荣斌》等将“我”作为主角的诗歌，以独特的切入角度，结合诙谐幽默的语言修辞与叙事手法进行自我探索与解构，袒露本我，希望通过“卸下自己的面具”来照见人性的本真，在呈现诗性幽默的同时，引发读者的反思，但愿人人都能做回真实的自己。

诗集以作品《原谅》为命题，是诗人在历尽这些千辛万苦，看透世间法则，挺过大风大浪后，学会放下、包容，以平和的心态看待万事万物的表现。

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为荣斌诗集作序

在荣斌的诗中，传统诗歌典范、浪漫主义倾向和对当代演讲与写作变换的语篇的专注交汇在一起。不仅如此，他还重点关注了道德问题，以一种直白的自传体形式展示自己。他的诗歌言语幽默，有时展现他人的愚蠢行为，但更多的是指向诗人对自己行为的否定。

《如果回到大宋》这首诗生动地体现了荣斌对于传统过去的着迷。诗中满是对理想中充满文学气息的过去的比喻。诗人想象自己穿越回宋朝时期（公元960年至1276年），那时的中国技术进步、文化习俗复杂多样，比如中国人就是在宋朝开始吃米饭和喝茶的。宋朝后期与欧洲（尤其是意大利）文艺复兴早期处于同一时期。诗人想象自己回到大宋，做一位有艺术修养的游侠，随时准备行侠仗义。他在诗中说，首先会善待所有女性，接着：

二是仗剑天涯  

游走江湖

像张无忌那样

策马扬鞭

行侠仗义 

三是归隐山林 

沧笙踏歌 

扮成一个 

采菊南山的陶老先生

在诗的结尾，诗人承认自己也有些“非分之想”，那就是希望自己能“置地百倾”、“娶一房媳妇”、“外加三个小妾”、“当个员外”还有“人丁兴旺，传宗接代 ”。所以，到这里我们看到，荣斌破坏了自己重现的辉煌过去，承认人的贪婪、欲望和虚荣，这些人类永恒的弱点。

类似的还有《秋风颂》，诗人向我们描绘了变换的四季，有丰收也有饥荒，有“甜蜜或苦涩”，有成熟也有腐烂。诗的结尾既有文学性又体现了个人的思考，诗人对这个世界也对自己承诺，他不会向无助与沮丧感屈服，而会记录时间和季节的变换，无论好坏，他会忠于自己的使命：“秋风尽情来吧，我仍然在歌唱”。

我们已经谈到了荣斌诗歌中的浪漫主义倾向，比如他希望穿越回辉煌又传奇的中国古代，比如暗指自己是永远在秋风中歌唱的歌者。而在《暗 角》和《自省书》这类诗中，我们能感受到诗人浪漫主义的另一面，与白天社会的条条框框相比，孤独的诗人更乐意待在黑夜。所以在《暗 角》这首诗中，诗人把自己称作是诅咒光明、对善良充满敌意的人，“把希望囚禁在/阴冷的盒子里”。因此在诗的最后，他这样结尾：

我的诗歌  

饿死在 

阳光照射不到的地方 

我的梦想

像是被风摧残的花朵  

虽然色泽鲜艳

但却毫无芬芳

我们从荣斌的《自省书》这首诗中，感受到了“被诅咒的诗人”。诗中，诗人承认自己爱撒谎、“与黑夜狼狈为奸”、坑蒙拐骗、虚情假意、饮酒过度。这首诗的与众不同之处在于，诗人没有用幽默的语言缓和这种气氛，反而在诗的最后为我们描绘了他倒在流浪狗身边、不省人事的画面。

在这篇序言的一开始我就提到了，很明显荣斌写诗的一大特点就是将自己作为叙述者，以第一人称的角度展现诗的内容，并且经常运用滑稽的方式打击自己。这些特点在他的很多诗中都有体现，比如《吃肉》这首诗中，他将自己后来对肉的钟爱归结于年轻时穷困、挨饿的经历。诗的结尾处展现了他独特的诗风，调侃地将自己比作爱吃骨头的饿狗。同样，在《拔牙》这首诗中，他嘲笑自己屈从于一位很有魅力的牙医的说服，花了大价钱，拔牙以后再种牙。诗的最后，他咬着牙（譬喻：心痛不已）为自己的治疗付费：

我忍着比牙疼   

更痛苦的心情    

到收银台   

刷卡付费   

那一刻我在想     

百年之后    

我什么都不会留下   

除了一副脆弱散架的白骨  

顶多只剩下 

这几枚造价高昂的螺丝钉

在《老板》这首诗中，荣斌对那些靠他人的需求发财的人持一种尖刻的态度，解释了“老板”这个词使自己联想到屠夫、骗子之流，因而非常厌恶。接着他继续写道，“老板”这个词应该最适合用在房地产商和放高利贷的人身上。

这便使我们理解了前面提到过的荣斌诗歌对道德问题的强烈关注。这本诗集的第一首讲述了“原谅”的意义，题目就叫做《原谅》，是一首真诚又令人动容的诗。诗的开头是这样的：

每天，临睡之前，请闭上眼睛 

让身心浮靠在平和的水面

学会沉静下来

学会返躬自省

学会宽容，坚忍，以及原谅

原谅所有的人和事 

原谅所有的过错与冒失 

这首诗一直保持着这样平静又宽宏大度的语气，直到结尾，给出了令人难忘的结论：

原谅谎言，原谅诋毁 

原谅没有兑现的承诺

原谅排挤和质疑，并且 

原谅懦弱与卑微的内心 

原谅那些，高高在上的面孔 

原谅他们的世故与无知 

还有一首很简短但同样有力的诗《树敌》，用坚定却又温和地语气给人们以建议。这首诗告诫我们不要“肆意”树敌，还解释了树敌这件事会在我们脑海中被放大，最后我们会怀疑每个人都是我们的敌人、对手。这首简明又睿智的小诗全诗如下：

树敌

如果你肆意树敌   

哪怕只有

一个人

那么不久之后

你的周围

就会出现 

一百个，一千个

甚至一万个  

隐身的对手

或是潜在的敌人    

荣斌的诗歌内容涉及广泛，尽显中国诗歌简洁、机智和抒情中见智慧的伟大传统。他用冷幽默式的当代习语，使自己的诗歌完全与我们当今的生活同频共振。

Introduction to Rong Bin

Rong Bin’s poetry is a meeting place between classical exemplars, Romantic aspirations and an attentiveness to the as yet unsettled discourses of contemporary speech and writing. There is also a strong emphasis on the ethical, and on staging the self in an apparently direct and autobiographical way. Humour is frequently employed. This is sometimes at the expense of foolish behaviour in others, but more frequently it is directed in a self-deprecatory way at the figure of the poet himself.

The poem ‘If I Could Go Back to the Song Dynasty’ is an interesting example of Rong Bin’s fascination with a classical past. It is full of tropes of an idealised, literary past. The poet daydreams about being transported to the Song (sometimes referred to as the ‘Sung’) period which lasted from 960 to 1276. It was a period of technological advances and sophisticated cultural practices. It was during this period that the Chinese embraced rice and tea, for example. And its later decades coincided with the early Renaissance in Europe, notably in Italy. The poet imagines living back in the Song Dynasty as an itinerant knight, deeply cultured in the arts, and always ready to fight for the oppressed. He says firstly that he would treat all women well. Then:

‘Secondly, wandering with my sword

to all corners of the country

like an itinerant warrior

I would urge my horse forward with my whip

and be ready with a strong sense of justice to help the weak

Thirdly, retreating to the woods

I would blow my reed pipe, singing and dancing

pretending to be an old gentleman like Tao Yuanming

who gathered chrysanthemums at the foot of the mountain’

Yet at the end of the poem the poet admits to harbouring ‘improper thoughts’ which include the desire for owning ‘vast swathes of land’, then taking a wife ‘as well as three concubines’, having great status as a ‘ministry councillor’ and engendering a ‘large and prosperous family to perpetuate my name’. So we can see here how Rong Bin undermines his noble evocation of the legendary past by admitting into it the perennial human weaknesses of greed, lust and vanity.

Similarly, in ‘Ode to the Autumn Wind’, we have a classic account of the changing of the seasons embracing both fecundity and failed harvests, ‘sweetness and bitterness’, ripening and decay. The conclusion is both literary and personal, as the poet promises to the the world and to himself, that he will not succumb to a sense of hopelessness or depression. Instead he will write of the times and of the seasons, including the good and the bad. He will be true to his calling:

‘Ah autumn wind, blow wild as you will, I will not stop singing’

We have also already touched upon some of Rong Bin’s Romantic inclinations, such as the wish to be swept away into a legendary past, and the implied identification of the self as perpetual singer, at one with the winds of autumn. In poems such as ‘Dark Corner’ and ‘My Introspection’ we sense another aspect of the Romantic archetype, the isolated poet who inhabits the night more readily than the social norms of daytime. So in ‘Dark Corner’ he refers to himself as one cursing the light and being hostile to kindness, ‘locking my hope / in a cold and gloomy box’. He goes on to conclude the poem thus:

My poetry

starved to death

in this sunless place

My dream

like wind-torn flowers

though full of beauty

is without fragrance

The sense of the ‘poète maudit’, or accursed poet, is developed in a poem called ‘My Introspection’ in which the poet admits to telling lies, working ‘hand in glove with the night’, cheating, being hypocritical and drinking far too much alcohol. This poem is unusual in that it is not lightened by humour and instead concludes with a vision of passing out in the street next to a stray dog.

At the start of this introduction I mentioned one characteristic mode of Rong Bin’s writing was the apparently direct presentation of the self as narrator, and the frequent employment of comic deflation. Such features recur throughout these poems. An example would be ‘Having Meat’ where he blames the poverty of his youth for his subsequent greediness for meat, a rarity when he was growing up with modest means. He ends this poem with a characteristic gesture, self-deprecatingly comparing himself to a dog hungering for a bone. Similarly, in the poem ‘Tooth Extraction’, he mocks himself for succumbing to the persuasive powers of an attractive dentist who has encouraged him to get new and very expensive dentures. At the end of the poem he grits his teeth (so to speak) to pay for this treatment, and continues:

I boiled with a resentment

worse than any toothache

then went to the counter

to pay with my credit card

at that moment I had the thought

that in a  hundred years

there will be nothing left of me

but disintegrating bones

and a scattering

of costly screws

In ‘Boss’ Rong Bin exhibits a scathing attitude to those who fatten themselves through the needs of others. He explains how much he dislikes the word ‘boss’ which he associates with butchers and fraudsters. Then he goes on to say how the word should best be applied to estate agents and thoses who lend at excessive rates of interest.

This conveniently brings us to Rong Bin’s previously mentioned strong focus on the ethical. The very first work in this collection is a moving and heartfelt poem on the importance of ‘forgiveness’, which is also its title. It starts like this:

Just close your eyes each night before you sleep

imagine floating in calm water

learn to immerse yourself in peace

regard your past mistakes

embrace tolerance, tenacity, forgiveness 

forgive the world and its inhabitants

forgive the errors all the mistakes and imprudence

The poem continues in this quiet, magnanimous vein before reaching this memorable conclusion:

forgive the lies and slanders

forgive the unkept promises 

forgive other when they doubt and shun you

and every weak or fickle heart

forgive those who hold their heads aloft

in ignorant urbanity

A much shorter but equally effective poem which also offers firm but gentle advice is ‘Making Enemies’. The poem urges us not to make enemies ‘recklessly’, and explains how ‘enemies’ have a tendency to multiply in our minds until we are suspicious of everyone. This wise and pithy poem can be quoted in its brief entirety:

Making Enemies

If you make enemies recklessly,

even just

one enemy,

then before long

around you

there will appear

one hundred, one thousand

even ten thousand

invisible opponents

or potential adversaries

In these wide-raging poems Rong Bin connects with the great traditions of Chinese poetry where wisdom meets succinctness, wit and lyricism. He does so in a wry, contemporary idiom which makes his poetry completely attuned to our lives today.

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